Apple MacBook Air MD711LL/A Laptop Review

By Tech For Pennies

July 8, 2016

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Hello there! Are you willing to spend your money on a neat-looking laptop from a chic and hip brand? In that case, Apple MacBook Air MD711LL/A might be your choice of computer. It has the professional-grade Apple design which pleases many… but is it alone the definition of a good notebook? I’ll tell you my thoughts on this system here!

Who is it good for?

Naturally, a laptop like Apple MacBook Air MD711LL/A is desirable for people who value good looks and lightweight design. Many travelers choose these Apples because of compact size and the laptop is exposed to different people – the owner wants to show he has the best and most beautiful tools. Indeed, the 11-inch unit weighs a mere 2.5 pounds and is 0.7 inch thick. Furthermore, user reports confirm the advertised 9-hour battery life is about right, so you can go on for a full day without recharging it.

The performance for mundane tasks is plenty. It has the Haswell-based Intel Core i5-4250U dual-core processor running the show. The unit offers a 1.3Ghz base frequency and 2.6Ghz turbo boost, with CPU Mark score being ~3500. The memory amount is 4GB onboard and there’s a real 128GB solid-state drive for the storage. With these specs, web browsers, videos and text editors are a piece of cake. There’s nothing wrong with occasional Photoshop work either, although the small screen size might hinder your work with that.

Who is it bad for?

The only people who would be rather disappointed with Apple MacBook Air MD711LL/A are the gamers. Naturally, such a petite laptop doesn’t come with dedicated graphics, just the Intel HD 5000 chip that is integrated in the processor. Like all built-in chips, also this HD 5000 can be used to play games that only require very little from the system. For example, Counter-Strike: Go and League of Legends will be playable, but GTA 5 will only give around 20 FPS on low settings – not very enjoyable.

Just keep in mind that the notebook has a small (but quick!) solid-state drive, so if you’re looking for a data storage option this MacBook is not ideal. You can of course enhance storage space with an external drive that plugs to USB.

Other things and features

Apple MacBook Air MD711LL/A comes with 11.6-inch display and 1366×768 maximum resolution – yep, no Full HD, but with this diagonal it’s understandable I’d dare to say. It’s not a touchscreen, no Apple laptop is. On top of the display a 720p webcam is embedded, it supporting the popular Facetime application.

Check out what other people are saying about this laptop on Amazon.com.

The selection of ports includes two USB 3.0 and one Thunderbolt for a monitor. Headphones port is also present.

The WiFi adapter (802.11ac standard with Bluetooth 4.0 available) can be used for networking. You won’t find RJ-45 port here.

It’s obvious that such a small model doesn’t have a built-in optical drive, but there is no SD card slot, either. However, external DVD drives and SD card readers are possible to hook up here.

The keyboard is backlit on this model.

The body is made of aluminum, no plastic used here.

Verdict

Apple MacBook Air MD711LL/A is one of the lightest and thinnest ultrabooks there currently exists. An ideal tool for a traveler or on-the-go computing, this small laptop also works as an occasional power user tool, with the Core i5 processor and SSD being able to handle software such as image editors. Check it out if compact, even premium, package is what you’re after!